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Ever ask a law clerk to use his or her school provided Westlaw or Lexis access to research an issue for you? Ever do it while you were a student whether or not you were asked to do so?

Apparently, in Utah, the practice is becoming an epidemic to the point that the state bar issued an ethics advisory opinion denouncing the practice. [HT: Legal Skills Prof Blog via Legal Blog Watch]. Of course, such usage of either service is a violation of terms of service. The opinion itself decries making clerical employment contingent upon the student using the service to save the employer fees.

Numerous students have reported that practicing attorneys have conditioned initial or continuing employment as a law clerk upon the student’s violation of the agreement with the research services. In other instances, lawyers have knowingly used information retrieved from the electronic services in violation of the student’s contractual agreement.

In the analysis, the opinion states that a lawyer “has no expectation that the law clerk will breach the contractual obligations for the benefit of the lawyer” and says she has an obligation to prevent such a breach. Not doing so is a violation of Utah’s RPC 5.3 and 8.4(c), which mirror Michigan’s (except it’s 8.4(b) here).

Is this practice rampant in Michigan? (Like anyone would admit it.) Should the State Bar of Michigan issue such a warning?

Former Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop has set his sights on elective office again.

Bishop has filed as a candidate for the Oakland County prosecutor’s office, according to The Associated Press.

The Rochester Republican looks to unseat Democrat Jessica Cooper, the current county prosecutor.

Bishop, who was term-limited from seeking re-election to the Senate, mounted an unsuccessful campaign for state attorney general in 2010. He lost the GOP nomination in a squeaker to Bill Schuette, who won the November general election.

Apparently, Saul Green’s 2012 resolution is to go back into the law firm setting.

The former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan and ex-deputy mayor of the city of Detroit has announced he’ll be serving of counsel in the Litigation and Trial Group at Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone, P.L.C.

Up until June 2011, Green was Detroit Mayor Dave Bing’s deputy mayor and executive over public safety (he was appointed in 2008 by then-Mayor Kenneth Cockrel).

He has a wide history of Detroit- and Wayne County-related involvement, having served as the county’s corporation counsel; chief counsel of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development at the Detroit Field Office; and assistant U.S. attorney.

In 2007, Green, along with fellow Miller Canfield partner Thomas Cranmer, was named one of Michigan Lawyers Weekly’s “Lawyers of the Year.”

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